


Pour Some Sugar on Me

by tothineownelfbetrue



Series: Spun Sugar Sweet [1]
Category: Disenchantment (TV 2018)
Genre: Anniversaries, Bean is trying to be a good girlfriend, Bean murders poor helpless cookies, Bean murders the kitchen, Bean sucks at secrets, Bean sucks at surprises too, Domestic Fluff, Elfo teaches cooking, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, It's Luci's birthday really, Luci is a good wingman, Princesses don't get taught to cook, Relatively new relationship, also he's fed up with them beating around the bush, also it's fluff, baking cookies, bet you didn't expect that from me, learning how to be together, little white lies, mention of realization of feelings, no beta we die like men, no expectations dating, slow exploration of a relationship, these confused kids, they deserve to be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22399195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothineownelfbetrue/pseuds/tothineownelfbetrue
Summary: So the elves have a cute tradition involving giving gifts to the person you're dating to celebrate being together. Elfo gives her a gift each time they go out and Bean would love to return the favour with something meaningful and handmade.Maybe deciding to bake Elfo a delicious gift of cookies was a bad idea when she doesn't know the first thing about cooking...but really, how hard can it be?Or: That weird fic that's actually an excuse for cute happy fluff.
Relationships: Bean | Tiabeanie/Elfo (Disenchantment)
Series: Spun Sugar Sweet [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685695
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	Pour Some Sugar on Me

**Author's Note:**

> So... yeah. I think this is my first actual fluff fic! Gasp! 
> 
> I promise, I can... try to write happy things. Hopefully I'll have more to come!

  
  


-

  
  
  
  


Flour was everywhere. It coated not only the table Bean was working on but also the floor, the stove, the walls. There were even a few wisps clinging stubbornly to the ceiling. No matter what Bean tried to do, the materials kept getting away from her.

The castle chefs had offered to help but Bean was determined to do this with a minimum of interference. The trouble being, of course, that she had never had to cook anything before in her life. The recipe on the page she was looking at might as well have been another language. Briefly she paused on that thought, peering at the recipe again, just in case it actually was in Elvish. But no. It was just plain old English. 

She sighed a little, leaning on her elbows against the table and watching the rising puff of white as she shifted her weight. How long had she been here? An hour? Two? Her back was starting to hurt a little from the number of times she had slumped in defeat before getting a second wind and deciding she was going to get it done right this time.

The abysmally large stack of ‘cookies’ piling up below the one window attached to the kitchen was evidence enough that ‘this time’ always proved to be as difficult as each of the previous times.

This was a lost cause.

As she sat there, she reminded herself that she was a princess and she had money and that money could be used to buy things like goods and services. Goods like cookies in a nice box. Or services, like paying someone to make cookies and then put them in a nice box.

If only it was just about cookies…

But it wasn’t. This was a gift, but a special gift. It was their tenth date-a-versary. Luci said that date-a-versaries weren’t actually real things and that Elfo was just looking for excuses to give her stuff because he was a sentimental little prick, but when she’d asked the one person in the castle who had any knowledge about elves, whether or not he’d ever heard of it, the answer had been a resounding “well...maybe”. So for their tenth date-a-versary, Bean wanted to be the one to surprise Elfo with a gift.

She’d asked Kissy, after running into her leaving the bar. The truth was, as long as she’d known Elfo, and despite the fact that they’d been dating for nearly two months now, she wasn’t entirely sure what he actually liked. No matter what she tried to give him, he always liked it and it was starting to weird her out.

Maybe it was because she’d never been in a steady relationship before. Or… any relationship that had lasted longer than two consecutive drunken evenings full of hot blurry sex. This was different and a lot more terrifying somehow. She wasn’t sure if she was in love. If she was, it wasn’t the way she’d pictured falling in love would be. But it was more than friendship and it was… nice. It gave her a steady warm feeling inside and the urge to smile a lot more. If it wasn’t love, it was definitely more than she would have ever expected to find with Elfo, of all people.

They’d both agreed to take things slow. It wasn’t anything worth losing their friendship over and after all they’d already been through, neither of them was in a particular rush. 

But just because there wasn’t a ton of expectations on her to be an amazing girlfriend didn’t mean that she didn’t want to at least try to be a decent one. She could get her boyfriend some kind of meaningful surprise gift for their anniversary, damn it!

“Hey Bean!” 

She froze in place, one arm still coiled awkwardly around the metal bowl, her body curling over it for a second before she pushed it down on the table, trying to sweep it behind herself as she whirled around. She pressed her back against the table and could feel something wet starting to soak into the fabric of her shirt. Her lips quirked in an attempt at a smile, one hand rising to run through her hair and leaving a soggy streak of batter. 

“O-oh! Elfo! Hey.” 

Elfo’s attitude shifted in a split second, brows furrowed. “Are you okay?” 

She struggled to find some plausible excuse for being in the kitchen, “Everything’s uh… everything’s fine here. How are you?”

The elf paused, looking up at her with a slight tilt to his head. Elfo wasn’t the smartest guy in the world - even if he was more intelligent than your average dreamland dude - but even he was able to figure out that something was amiss with this whole situation. “I’m… okay.” He cleared his throat, then leaned his body slightly to one side, trying to peer around her. “What are you doing?”

Bean bit her lip and tried to smile wide and innocent at the same time, shuffling her weight to try and cover the mess behind her. She braced herself on her elbow, leaning over as Elfo did so she continued to block his field of vision. It worked well enough - considering she was a great deal larger than him and had more mass to block his view with - until her braced elbow slipped against a puddle of runny batter and slid right out from under her.

She swore out loud as the lack of anything to brace herself with meant she lost her balance and landed on the floor. The motion also succeeded at dragging down the bowl she’d slid behind her and a few other items as well, dumping her attempt at cookie dough onto her head where it slid in clumps down the back of her neck.

Elfo jumped slightly as she fell, then tried to move in to help her, only to back up as Bean waved him off. Her face was burning as she kept her gaze on the floor, not letting it rise past the level of his knees. So much for this gift… She hadn’t considered just how hard cooking could actually be. It was so much easier to just ask the royal chef for anything she wanted and get it delivered right to her. No work.

“Bean…” Elfo finally managed, his voice soft in the way that Bean recognized as his ‘comforting’ tone. “Are you sure you’re okay? What’s going on?”

She sighed, reaching up a hand to swipe a bit of flour from her cheek and only succeeding at smearing the runny dough there instead. She mumbled something, then when Elfo gave his head a little shake, she repeated herself, more audibly this time. “I was trying to make cookies.” Her foot lashed out, kicking one of the pans that was still sitting on the floor and sending it sliding. “It’s harder than I thought it would be.”

“Cookies?” Elfo gasped out, high and excited. He came in closer, reaching out to snag the bowl she’d knocked to the floor. He slid a finger along the edge of it, not caring that it was on the floor only a moment ago, and licked away a bit of the batter. He paused with his finger partway in his mouth, eyes going wide for a second. It wasn’t a good sign, especially considering Elfo was prone to eating just about anything - including floor lint - without complaining. 

Bean winced a little as he still didn’t say anything after a few seconds. “That bad, huh?”

“What?” Elfo sputtered. “No!” There was a pause while he continued to stare at her with a too-wide smile that Bean didn’t believe for a minute. She didn’t say anything and the elf started to sweat. It took only a few seconds more before he cracked. “Okay. Yes! It’s pretty bad!” He pushed the bowl back into her hands with a sob that was far too dramatic for a batch of lousy cookies. “But you tried really hard and I didn’t want to discourage you!”

Her hand settled on his shoulder, interrupting his babbling. “Hey, it’s okay.” She leaned back against the counter with a long sigh. “I knew it wasn’t going to turn out very well, really. I mean… I’ve never cooked anything before. It’s harder than I thought…”

The words got an unexpected reaction as Elfo let out a soft gasp at that. She raised her head to look at him, to find he had both hands pressed against his mouth. His eyes were big. At her confused expression, Elfo dropped his hands, grabbing her arms with a bright-eyed, earnest look on his face. “You’ve never cooked before? Ever?” At her slight, confused nod, he almost screeched. “Oh! That makes so much sense now!” 

He became a blur of motion, his small green hands moving rapidly across the floor, scooping up bowls and utensils and tossing them back up onto the counter with an easy toss. He had everything up in only a few moments and then stood in front of her, reaching down with one hand to help her to her feet.

“Come on.” He said, smiling brightly. “It’s not so hard. I’ll show you.”

She took his hand without thinking and grabbed the counter with the other, pulling herself to her feet before his words registered with her. “Wait… you’re going to cook it?” She felt an uncomfortable twinge at the thought of Elfo baking the gift she was going to give him. “But…”

“We can cook together!” He offered, chipper. It had been a little while since she’d seen him so actively enthusiastic about something and she bit her lip. It was still awkward but refusing him and then giving him shitty cookies would not only hurt his feelings but probably his stomach as well. 

“Yeah… I guess that’s okay.” She hedged, then tensed as his arms came up around her in a hug. 

“Oh! This will be fun!” Elfo drew back, beaming. He dragged a stool over and hopped up on it to reach the counter. Picking up the page, he looked it over. “Is this the recipe we’re doing?” Bean fumbled to answer, jerking to her feet as Elfo finally asked the question she’d been dreading all this time. “Oh! What is this for?”

It occurred to her, a bit belatedly, that the fact that she didn’t know how to cook and certainly didn’t do so frequently might make her decision to randomly make some cookies using an elf recipe seem suspicious. She cast her thoughts about wildly, trying to come up with some remotely plausible excuse. Anything that wasn’t actually the real reason. “I…” She blanked for a few seconds, then hit on something that she didn’t think Elfo could immediately disprove. “It’s Luci’s birthday! And I just wanted to surprise him. And I know he likes cookies.”

“He does?” Elfo was intrigued by this new information

She made a note to herself to go find Luci right away after they were done and bribe him to agree that it was his birthday and that cookies were his favourite thing in the world. “Yes! Of course!” She laughed, trying not to sound stilted. “So… let’s… make those.”

Elfo nodded, chipper and completely unsuspecting. It was funny that there were still a few things he was so naive about when they’d literally been through so much. He was kind of a badass when it came to fighting to protect his friends, but apparently still trusting when it came to lies regarding said friends’ birthdays and favourite foods. She’d have to make it up to him later when she could tell him the truth.

They had to clean up a few things before they could start again and Bean grimaced at the way the cookie dough was still clinging to her face. She took the time to wash her face and arms off in the basin while Elfo did dishes. She was surprised as he started handing them to her, covered with soap. “What?”

“I’ll wash and you can rinse. Assembly line! It makes things go faster.” He hummed as he went back to his washing, leaving Bean standing there uncertain for a minute before she dunked the dishes in the clean water and then set them aside. He did have a point. This made it a lot faster and they had a pile of clean dishes quickly. With that out of the way, Elfo snagged an apron from one of the hooks nearby and passed one to Bean. It took her a few seconds of trial and error to figure out what to do with it.

The recipe was still on the counter, but Elfo took only a cursory glance at it before starting to pull out ingredients. The ones on the higher shelves were more of an issue and Bean slid her arms around him, lifting him to a more convenient level so he could fetch down various containers. He opened a few of them and Bean had no idea what the stuff inside was. When she made a confused sound, he looked at her, brow quirked. “You really don’t know much about cooking…” He presented her with the open container he was holding. It was full of something that looked like dirt. When she smelled it, it didn’t smell like dirt though. It was weirdly spicy. Spicy dirt? “It’s cinnamon.” He explained, taking a couple of pinches of it and putting them into the bowl. “It’s a spice.”

She nodded. “Right.” Oh yes. Spices. Dreamland had gone to war over those a few times, though they’d paled in comparison to the recent Lemon Crusades. Also, she’d been bored at the point where Bunty had gotten to that part in Dreamland history and she’d mostly zoned out on the details. 

It was more interesting to see that Elfo was using the spices in the cookies. She recognized the sugar and flour as cooking ingredients, but the way he was blending them was different. She frowned a little. “I didn’t do it like that… is that what went wrong?”

Elfo looked at her, holding the butter tub. “Oh? You have to cream the butter and sugar first or the consistency won’t be right.” Then he clarified. “It means you have to mix them together and soften the butter up. Here…” He pressed the bowl into her hands then dragged his stool over so he could stand level with her chest. When she just stood there, uncertain, he curled his hand over hers and guided her to move the whisk. “Like this. You just want to mix it until it’s smooth and all blended together. You don’t want gritty parts in the dough.”

While she was mixing, hesitantly but with increasing confidence, Elfo was setting eggs out on a cloth and putting the flour and some other items into another bowl. “Is that… salt?” It was one of the containers she recognized because her dad frequently used it during dinner functions.

“Yeah.” Elfo gave the container a slight shake. “It helps the cookies rise.” He peered into her bowl with a smile. “That’s looking good! Great job!” Bean couldn’t help but smile in response. Even with her lack of experience at baking, she could tell this was turning out better than her last several batches. ...Okay… all of her batches.

“This isn’t so bad…” She said, setting the bowl aside for a moment to look at the page. “I don’t know why it’s so hard to read.”

“Oh, those are just measurements. It looks confusing because of all the numbers, but it just means you’ll be using certain amounts of the ingredients.” He frowned a little. “I don’t think you have measuring spoons in Dreamland… no wonder you got confused!” Elfo smiled reassuringly. “If you like baking, maybe I could get some. I’m sure Crafto sells them.” There was something a bit shy and hopeful about the offer.

Bean was wry. “Let’s see how this batch turns out first.” But she wasn’t saying no either. As a princess, she wasn’t required to cook, but it was kind of fun to do it with someone else.

Elfo handed her one of the eggs, demonstrating the proper way to crack it against the side of the bowl before she did the second one. There was something satisfying about the action and she took care of the remaining egg, mixing it in with her half of the cookie ingredients. As she stirred, she couldn’t help but think a little. “So… Elfo…” She began a bit softly. “I never learned to do this stuff. Cuz I’m a princess…” It didn’t really need qualification on the ‘why’ since he’d seen firsthand the sort of things she was and wasn’t allowed to do as a princess, but she still felt the need to bring it up anyway. Perhaps it was just some instinctive defensiveness. “Is this… common… for elves to know this stuff?” As far as she knew, Elfo hadn’t specifically been a baker, so why would he know how to bake things?

He was silent for a moment, doing something odd with the flour and a fork. “I guess it is. That’s not weird? I mean not for us. We don’t always wind up in a job doing this kind of thing, but it’s something we learn. I’ve been baking since…” He hesitated. “I don’t even know when.” He laughed. “I’ve worked the production line since I was like five or six though. So before that.”

  
  


“You’ve worked all your life?” Bean couldn’t help the slight frown that pulled at the corners of her lips. It wasn’t the first time she’d been confronted with the realities of the rest of the world, but even interacting with Bunty’s kids and the other varied peasants had still put a little distance between her and the reality of it. It was different to know that someone she knew so well, her best friend, had basically grown up in a society that took advantage of child labour. 

“It’s not so bad.” Elfo shrugged a little. “I mean… it was bad, but you get used to it?” He was up to his elbows in the bowl and the fact that he had to stand on a stool just to be able to reach the table only emphasized how small he was. The borrowed apron’s strings were wrapped double around his middle. He was normally a bit uncoordinated, if not actually clumsy, but his hands moved among the kitchen implements smoothly. “And it was mostly small stuff, starting out. Sweeping floors, washing dishes. I only really cooked for myself and Pops.”

He gestured for her to bring her bowl closer. “Okay. Just hold it steady and keep mixing while I pour this in, okay?” Bean nodded, watching with fascination as he poured the flour mixture into her bowl with the sugar and eggs. The smooth strokes of the whisk and the food starting to blend together were mesmerizing in a weird way. She cleared her throat, looking away from it and instead finding her gaze on Elfo. He had an air of determination that was pretty cute, actually. It was like he was going into battle instead of baking cookies. There was flour smeared across his cheek, despite his obvious experience at this and it made Bean feel a little better about the tremendous mess she’d made earlier.

“I didn’t realize,” she said, clearing her throat softly, trying not to look too awkward or rude by staring at him while he was working. The strokes of the whisk faltered in her hand a little before she steadied herself. “I guess I forgot that most people don’t have chefs around to do everything.” It had been an eye-opener when she’d been banished from the castle briefly. Bunty had been happy to take her in and she’d not had to actually cook for herself, but it was the first time she’d been aware that most people did things for themselves. “It sounds hard…” The words were soft but reflective. 

If Elfo was bothered by her brief foray into pity, he didn’t show it. He just shrugged, shaking the last of the flour into her bowl. “It was okay. I learned to cook watching Pops and then I cooked for us.” He set the bowl aside, grinning a little. “It was better that way. Pops really can’t cook anything worth eating.” He covered his mouth immediately afterward, like he’d said something bad.

Bean just laughed at that, giving the mixture a few more strokes with the whisk. It seemed to be all blended and when she tipped it toward Elfo to show him her progress he nodded in agreement.

“That looks great! Let’s get it on the pans!” Bean had to pick up the pans after watching Elfo try to wrangle one of them. They were huge, especially compared to his own diminutive size. Bean set it out and watched with fascination as Elfo picked up a cylindrical piece of wood and started smooshing the dough they’d made onto the counter. “What kind of shapes does Luci like?”

“Shapes?” Bean parroted, brain struggling to put together how that weird question fit in with anything. She figured it out when Elfo started cutting into the dough with a knife and forming a small star shape. Oh! Shapes. The rest of the question refused to click, though. “Why does that matter?”

Elfo stopped, mid-cut, looking up at her quizzically. “Because… it’s his birthday?”

Oh. The lie. Right.

“Um…” She bit her lip. She had no clue. “Triangles!”

“Triangles?” 

“Yes.” Obviously triangles had been a stupid answer, but Bean doubled down on it. “And… uh… birds.”

The elf looked down at the rolled out dough and wrinkled his nose. “Triangles and birds. Okay.” His hands were deft as they moved the dull blade across the sheet, cutting with small flicks. It was like a magic trick. There was flat dough, then some sweeps of Elfo’s knife and then there were birds and triangles and he was folding the leftover dough back into a new ball to roll out again.

It was such a contrast with the way he was most of the rest of the time. This confidence. He knew what he was doing and he just did it. There was such a dichotomy between this and the way he was hesitant or soft-spoken around most other people and she had to be honest… it was pretty cool.

Moments like this had set their relationship in motion, not that long ago.

-

She could have died that day. It hadn’t been because of any failing in her skill - she was a better fighter than the majority of the actual knights working for her father - but because of sheer dumb luck for the beast-man who’d seen an opening to come in behind her. Only Luci yelling at her to watch out had made her turn, with time enough to see her doom barrelling down on her and no way of countering or getting out of the way. The weapon in his hands had risen high enough to block out the sun.

And that had been it. An eternity of waiting for her own death because of yet another one of Dreamland’s useless decisions in the past coming back to bite them in the ass. 

The beast-man didn’t bring his weapon down on her though. It slid from his fingers and landed on the ground, just in front of Bean. As she watched in astonishment, the large figure pitched forward and to the side, hitting the earth with a hefty thud. Elfo’s small weapon had torn down the creature’s back. As the beast-man hit the ground, the weight of his body caused a rupture of blood and viscera that splattered across Bean’s legs and Elfo’s front. 

It took a few seconds for everything to sink in, the two of them meeting gazes across the mess of fallen enemy guts. Elfo panted slightly, and Bean realized he’d probably run at a pretty fast sprint to get to the creature bearing down on her before it reached her. “Are you okay?” He asked, finally and she had the urge to snatch him up and hug him tight.

She wasn’t thinking as she spoke, her voice shaky and breathless, “Elfo…” She meant to ask if he was okay. It was hard for her to tell at a glance with all the blood around him, but what came out instead was “Do you want to go to dinner?” She sound of her own voice echoed in her ears and she wanted to snatch the words back. Given everything that they’d been through together, was it awkward to even be thinking about this? 

Elfo froze where he stood, still soaked to the elbows in blood and entrails. “Right now?” He snapped out the words with that ‘are you crazy?’ tone that told her that he hadn’t even really heard her. Then: “Wait…” He stared at Bean and in only a few seconds the confidence he’d had while battling to help her melted away and he stammered a little over his words. “O-oh, you mean like… a friend dinner.” Laughed, to brush it off.

She had to consider the question. She’d been so caught up in the heat of the battle and the adrenaline that she hadn’t really thought about what she meant or what she wanted. It was something she’d had to ask herself a lot lately. What did she want to do with her life? What was she looking for? 

A year ago she’d been so full of uncertainty about everything, it had all felt so hopeless and out of her control and there had been nothing to do but lash out in whatever way she could manage. She had nothing but frustration and some seriously bad ideas about adulthood and romance and life. She remembered when she’d realized that Elfo actually had feelings for her: when he’d tried to kiss her. It had taken her so long to put it together that he had a crush on her that when she realized it, she'd been embarrassed she hadn't seen it before.

Let him down gently. It had been the best idea. He simply wasn’t what she was looking for. He was nothing like the guys she found attractive - even if he was cute in a weird way - and she certainly hadn’t felt that expected ‘love at first sight’ lightning strike of emotion that might have made her sit up and take notice. It had been the easiest option but also the best one.

It just hadn’t been as easy as she’d expected and, as it turned out, deciding to just ignore it by finding Elfo’s fake girlfriend and bringing her back to Dreamland had been… well, a disaster all around.

“No.” She said. Not like a friend dinner. And then “I don’t know.”

There was something like panic in Elfo’s eyes like she’d caught him off-guard. Maybe trying to have a discussion about working out her feelings - romantic or otherwise - was a bad idea in the middle of a heated battle, but she’d felt the need to say /something/.

“I…” He’d say yes. He liked her, didn’t he? Or would he say no? It had all just been an infatuation after all. Did it really matter? Elfo took a long breath and then gave himself a shake. “Let’s… talk about it later. Ask me later.” He jumped forward, moving past her, “Bad guys!” She could have sworn he sounded relieved to be able to immediately go back to mindless hacking and slashing of the people who wanted to kill them.

Later. She kind of knew how it felt to want to defer something like this. Maybe by the time they did talk, she’d have some idea of what the hell she was feeling.

-

  
  
  


The next time Bean brought it up, there was no battle going on. It was after what had been an uneventful day for the three of them, helping Luci at the bar. There was enough time since the battle that Bean thought that Elfo had probably forgotten about it. He never mentioned it at all. Bean had a whole week to think about whether or not it had been a phenomenally bad idea. So far, she didn’t have a clear answer.

It was Luci who came up to her and slapped her on the shoulder with his tail. “So. You two losers have a fight?” He sounded far too casual to not be interested in the answer to that question.

Bean shook her head. “No.” And when Luci leveled her with that steady, unconvinced stare, she finally banged her head on the table with a groan. “No. We really didn’t. It’s worse.” She could feel the way his brow quirked at that, even if the action was hard to see on his shadowy face. Yeah. What could be worse than them getting into a fight? Even that was pretty rare. She sighed. “I… asked him out.”

“You did what?” Luci was in the middle of an inhale from his cigar and he promptly choked on the smoke and started coughing. It took a few seconds for him to get enough control over himself to start breathing properly again. When he looked at Bean, his expression was almost comically confused. “Wait… you asked him out…” he hesitated for a second, tangled in his words. “Did… did he say no or something?”

No. No would probably have been better than this… non-answer. “He said we’d have to talk later.” It had been weird circumstances, so it probably didn’t mean anything. But the thought of actually bringing it up again made her stomach feel a little queasy.

“It’s later now.” Luci said, pursuing the thought relentlessly. When Bean looked at him, dismayed, he climbed up onto her shoulder, curling fingers in a lock of her hair. “Look… I’ve watched the two of you dance around with your feelings for a long time now. Either it’ll work or it won’t. I’m pretty sick of being the middleman though, so you two dumbasses need to just talk and work it out. If you won’t do it for yourselves, do it for me.” He tugged at her hair. “Do it. Do it.”

Bean couldn’t help a little smile at that. No matter how he framed it, she could read Luci pretty well by now. He’d be pretty pissed though, if she told him how transparent she found his ploy. “Yeah. I guess I should. What’s the worst thing that could happen?” She reached out, hand clamping on Luci’s mouth to preemptively shut him up. “Don’t answer that.”

So she talked to Elfo.

It was easy to tell something was up when she entered the room and Elfo slumped down a little in his seat like he was trying to make himself smaller. Okay. So he was definitely aware of what was going on and it didn’t take a genius to see he was nervous. Knowing Elfo, he’d probably been fretting over her offer all this time and hadn’t had the nerve to bring it up with her.

Given their past history with being open about feelings, she supposed it wasn’t that strange that he’d be worried. The last time they’d talked about the idea of romantic feelings, he’d been kidnapped and then murdered. The time before that, he’d lied and wound up playing ‘pretend girlfriend’ with a giant. And before that… vikings.

“Wow. We really have a bad track record, don’t we?”

Her words made his ears perk in confusion, his gaze shifting toward her. His mouth was open slightly, but at least his baffled expression meant that he wasn’t trying to hide anymore. When their eyes met, she smiled, trying to be reassuring.

“With talking about feelings.” She clarified and watched him cringe. “I mean… when we have feelings, it seems like a lot of people die.”

Green fingers curled against the back of the chair, but Elfo didn’t hide. He just pressed his cheek against the wood with a sigh. “Yeah.” He let out a soft sound that wasn’t a laugh. “Isn’t that… more reason not to?” His question was soft but earnest. “I think we’ve caused enough trouble.”

Bean countered then, not sure why she felt such a surge of determination. Maybe it was because she hated the idea of being pushed around by anyone, much less something stupid like superstition. “With everything we’ve been through, what’s the worst that could happen?” They’d been to war, fought monsters and dark creatures and spells and Bean’s mom. They’d even gone up against Hell itself. What could possibly be worse than that?

“We could stop being friends,” Elfo said. Just that. The words had an effect that the thought of monsters and demons and death didn’t. It made her gut twist.

She bit her lip, braced herself against the reaction to those words and said, “That won’t happen.”

“How can you be sure?” Elfo let out the words in a breathy whine. “I… that’s something I can’t risk. I can be friends and not anything else. But I don’t want to be not-friends anymore! I can’t do that!” She understood his fear all too well. She’d never had friends before Luci and Elfo had come into her life and the thought of going back to life without them by her side was something she was afraid to even contemplate. But unlike Elfo, she was remembering the things they’d been through together, been through to save each other, to find each other. 

Maybe they’d try going out and it really would be nothing. They were both pretty lousy in the area of relationships, after all. But she had to have faith that something so relatively small wouldn’t break them. “Hey.” She rested a hand on his shoulder, giving him a gentle shake. “Listen to me. It won’t be like that. I mean…” She let out a soft laugh, breathless. “I mean if my dad and Oona can break up and still be friends, then I know we can do better. If it doesn’t work, we’ll be okay. We can take it slow and see where it goes. There’s no pressure.” She bit her lip for a second. “I guess… the real question is… do you… y’know… like me? Like that?”

The corner of Elfo’s mouth twitched and his look was both terrified and slightly hopeful. He swallowed hard, then dipped his head in a tiny nod. “Y-yeah.” His voice came out so soft she could barely hear it.

His words bolstered her a little. It would have been useless to try at all if they weren’t at least both on the same page of ‘liking’ each other. It might never be more than that. Only time would tell… if they let it. 

She let her fingers brush across the back of his hand to get his attention. She waited until he looked up at her and then she smiled. “Hey. Let’s figure it out together, okay? You know no matter what, we’ve always got each other’s backs. It’s just dinner. If we’re not feeling it, we don’t have to do anything else.” Elfo’s eyes went down to her hand where it rested atop his and he nodded again, a little less fearful this time. He shifted his grip on the chair, turning his hand so he could hold hers for a second. 

“Yeah.” He said. Let out a breath and then, again. “Yeah. Okay. Let’s try it.”

-

“Bean?” Something bumped against her hand and she blinked, then looked down at Elfo who had his nose wrinkled. From the look on his face, he’d probably said her name more than once already. 

“Yeah?” She tried to get herself out of her own thoughts, “Sorry, distracted for a moment.” She switched to a joking leer. “I guess you got me thinking.”

Elfo snorted, looking down at himself, in his too-large apron and his flour stained sleeves. “Thinking about how ridiculous I look right now?” He gave a mock pout and then smiled back. “It’s okay. I think we both look like we lost a fight with that flour sack.” He cleared his throat. “I just need your help getting these in the oven.” Elfo tipped his head toward the pan full of cookies that were laid out neatly. He’d even decorated them somehow.

“Where did you get sprinkles?”

The elf just blinked at her and after a few seconds of this steady, unnerving look, she dropped it. She probably didn’t want to know anyway.

The pan was way too big for him to easily lift, so she took care of it, putting the cookies in the oven. The two of them idled while the cookies baked. Elfo bustled around a bit, cleaning up and then once the counter was wiped off, he moved to stand beside Bean where she was leaning against the counter. He wiped his hands off on the front of his apron, smoothing the wrinkled fabric.

“You know,” he began, conversationally. Bean glanced down at him out of the corner of her eye. “It’s kind of weird…” 

“What is?”

Elfo reached into his apron and fished out the sheet of paper that Bean had been using earlier in her attempts to make the recipe. Immediately Bean tensed a little, not sure where this line of conversation was heading. “It’s just weird that these are Luci’s favourite cookies! I didn’t think anyone besides elves made them!”

“Oh.” Well, that seemed innocent enough to wonder about. There weren’t many folks besides elves who had the opportunity to bake sweet things anyway. It was easy enough to concoct another lie. “He had some after the elves moved to Elf Alley. He was telling me about it. That’s why I got this recipe.”

  
  


“Oh.” Elfo nodded at that and there were a few seconds of silence where Bean silently congratulated herself for her smooth recovery. Then: “He must have gotten them from Kissy then.” Bean’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Elfo again, trying to gauge where this line of thought was headed. He was tapping at the paper with his thumb. “I mean… these are Elf Date-a-versary cookies, so he must have had them when he and Kissy were going out.”

Bean froze at the words, caught. She wasn’t sure if Elfo was being serious in his show of mild confusion or not. She let a few more seconds pass, then she sighed. “Okay.” She said, rubbing at her arm. “You got me. They’re not for Luci.” She turned her head away, a hint of colour coming to her cheeks. “I was trying to make them for you.”

“For me?” The words came out halfway between a gasp and a squeak.

“Yeah.” She laughed a little at herself, a wry sound. “You always get me gifts for our Date-a-verseries and I never get you anything. I just wanted to be the one giving you something for once.”

As she talked, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye to see his reaction to her admission and was surprised to see that his cheeks were getting darker. His head dipped and he made a soft sound, almost a snort. “I uh…” He shuffled his feet and then looked up at her, shamefaced. “I kinda… fibbed.” He mumbled the words.

When Bean stared at him, open-mouthed, not sure where this was going, Elfo swallowed, raising a hand to rub at the back of his neck as he continued. “Date-a-versaries are only after a year… or sometimes half a year maybe.” He bit his lip. “But I wanted to give you something and you were so happy to get a gift that I kind of… kept doing it.”

Bean couldn’t help it. She laughed. When Elfo jerked his head up to look at her with an incredulous expression, she reached down to pull him into a hug that dragged him off of his feet. She was more covered in baking materials than Elfo and her embrace succeeded at getting him covered from the neck down with a thin coating of flour. He sputtered for a second, but his arms came up around her to return the hug.

They were so preoccupied with hugging each other like a pair of dorks that they were oblivious to the rest of the stuff going on around them. It wasn’t until the scent of something burning reached Bean’s nose that she remembered that they were here to cook, not get embarrassed over their little white lies to be nice to each other.

Elfo smelled it too, he wiggled out of her grasp, landing with surprising dexterity as he reached to open the oven. “Oh!” He paused, still too small to actually remove the pan. He had to wait for Bean to pull it out, fidgeting in place the entire time. They both looked over the cookies with apprehension. 

“Well…?” Bean asked, finally, looking at Elfo. Having never made them, she had no idea if they were normal or not. They still looked a hell of a lot better than all of her attempts at cookies.

Elfo reached out, plucking one of the cookies from the tray. He sniffed it tentatively before taking a careful nibble from one corner. Bean didn’t have to ask what he thought of it. There was a slight momentary droop to his ears that was evidence enough that they’d managed to mess it up. “It’s burned, isn’t it?” She asked, just for confirmation. He nodded slowly.

Maybe he anticipated that she’d feel bad because he raised his head, setting the cookie aside and trying to reassure her. “But! It’s not that bad! I just…” He turned his head a little, “I don’t uh… really like traditional date-a-versary cookies…” Elfo had a hesitant smile as he looked up at her, embarrassed.

“Oh.” She hadn’t considered that part. She shook her head. “Sorry. I thought I had a good idea…”

He hastened to reassure her. “No! It was great!” He looked at the tray of slightly burned cookies. “I mean… maybe not these… but getting to cook together was so fun!” Elfo bounced a little on his heels. “I loved it! This was the best date-a-versary gift I’ve ever gotten!” He paused, then hedged slightly, “And maybe… sometime we could cook something else together?” His voice was a little hopeful. Bean wasn’t sure of the wisdom of it. They might just burn even more food… but she grinned a little and nodded anyway.

Elfo beamed and reached his arms up. She leaned in, scooping him into her arms and pressing a kiss to his lips that he returned with a giggle. He leaned his head on her shoulder as they both turned to look at the tray of singed cookies.

“So… if you’re not going to eat them, and I’m not going to eat them…” Bean mused, “Then what should we do with them?”

-

“Happy Birthday!” Elfo crowed out as he presented Luci with a plate full of cookies. The demon squinted sightly, his ears going back. He reached out, taking hold of one of them and looked at it dubiously.

“You losers made me some weird bird and triangle cookies?” Luci stared at Bean, eye narrowed. “You do know it’s not actually my birthday, right?” 

Bean gave a slight shrug at that, tipping her head toward Elfo. “Let him enjoy it. Besides, it’s free cookies, right?”

“Yeah. Free burned cookies. With… sprinkles? I guess?” He inspected the cookie he was holding then shrugged. “Eh. Whatever.” He popped the whole cookie into his mouth and ate it with slow crunching sounds. The other two watched him with bated breath.

“Hey, this is actually pretty good.” Luci picked up the plate. “Happy birthday to me, I guess.” He popped another into his mouth as he started to pad off toward the door. He paused just in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder at them. “Oh yeah. Happy anniversary losers.” 

As Luci disappeared through the doorway, Bean and Elfo shared a quick glance and a laugh. 

“Happy date-a-versary, Elfo.” Bean said, stroking a hand through his hair as he leaned in close for another hug.

He beamed. “Happy date-a-versary, Bean.”

-Fin-

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the LLF Comment Project, which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
> Feedback
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> LLF Comment Builder
> 
> This author replies to comments. It just might take a little while!


End file.
